BROADBAND COMMUNITIES is the leading source of information on digital and broadband technologies for buildings and communities. Our editorial aims to accelerate the deployment of Fiber-To-The-Home and Fiber-To-The-Premises.
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Residents' Frequency Internet service providers must resolve problems in near real time to prevent customer complaints from echoing and being amplified through social media. By David Daugherty ■ Korcett Holdings Inc. F or bulk Internet services, the noise factor, or volume of leasing-office complaints, is inversely propor- tional to Internet performance (see the January-February 2012 Metrics column for details). Noise is an indicator of how well a service provider performs day to day. If residents make noise in the front office about poor Internet performance, rest assured that they are voicing their discontent socially. Tis has a detrimen- tal effect on occupancy, the lifeblood of any student housing facility. A secondary effect of a loud noise is an echo – a sound that reverberates after the original sound has stopped. If the underlying Internet service problems are not rapidly addressed, noise reverberates from the leasing office to the property management regional and corporate of- fices and back to the ISP. In student housing, echoes quickly escalate to resonance – that is, they begin bleeding onto social networking sites, af- fecting the reputations of property own- ers and service providers. Engineers know that at "resonance frequency," even small driving forces can produce large oscilla- tions. In student housing, this could be called "residents' frequency." Phillip Emer, director of technology at Preiss Properties, notes, "Students ex- pect consistent Internet access, period. By the time a resident reports an Inter- net issue to the property staff, the issue has almost certainly already been posted to and discussed on a social media plat- form. Tough no news is good news when it comes to Internet satisfaction, when there is news, we as property man- agers and providers need to be prepared to react quickly – perhaps even using the online thread to help diagnose and ad- dress the problem." As the importance of reliable Internet access increases, service provider responsiveness must increase proportionally. Back-office support for Internet service will become mission critical, its cost increasing over time. CONTROL THEORY Industry knows how to address this kind of problem. Any engineering student who studied control theory in college can tell you feedback is the key. Respon- sive communication with customers makes it possible to identify and resolve problems before they reach resonance. Until recently, manual means of communication were sufficient to ad- dress Internet service issues. Com- pressed time frames and the increased importance of reliable Internet access (as in student housing) drive down the time allowed for problem resolution, so that resonance is reached more quickly. Te 2012 summer installation season for student housing tested network, customer support and problem resolu- tion resources as they have never been tested before – and found them want- ing. Purely manual means of problem identification and resolution no longer suffice. Subscribers are becoming much more dependent on rapid, technically competent customer support. Internet services are becoming more service-centric and less reliant on tech- nology. Tis is bad news for incumbent service providers, as it will require a sig- nificant change to their business models. About the Author David Daugherty is the founder and CEO of Korcett. He can be reached at david@ korcett.com. Korcett is dedicated to the design, development, deployment and support of next-generation managed service solutions. 16 | BROADBAND COMMUNITIES | www.broadbandcommunities.com | OCTOBER 2012 Te days of a service provider's slapping in a cable or DSL modem and walking off are over. As bandwidth requirements for most Internet applications increase, reliable connectivity and robust post- installation customer support are vital. Service providers, property manage- ment companies and their consultants must now look beyond service-level agreement provisions in managed ser- vice agreements. Competent Internet service providers must provide real- time, Web-based communication tools to help manage the installation, ongoing delivery and support of Internet services. More collaborative relationships be- tween service providers and subscribers are also needed – which requires man- aging expectations. Everyone needs to understand what is required to install and deliver reliable services. Moreover, key stakeholders must understand that maintaining customer expectations is a never-ending task. Te requirement for near-real-time communication between leasing-office personnel and subscribers is the foun- dation for reliable service and will give rise to a new generation of customer communication tools. Providing next- generation services will require an in- timate knowledge of individual sub- scribers and their Internet usage pat- terns. Tis information will be used to maintain acceptable levels of service and proactive delivery of customer-specific information and customer support. Y